Two Monks Looking up at a Dragon in a Tower
Anonymous, Italian, Tuscan, early 15th century
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This scene, loosely sketched in its most essential elements, may allude to Petrus de Cruce's real or imaginary journey to two popular holy sites located on the pilgrimage route between Damascus and Beirut: the holy mountain where Noah built his ark and the place outside Beirut where Saint George supposedly slayed the dragon that was devouring the local youth. On a rocky outcrop at the upper left is a wooden structure with one window, meant to represent Noah's ark. In the foreground, Petrus de Cruce (Pierre de la Croix, fl. Late 13th century) is shown standing at the foot of a tower next to an unidentified lay figure holding a pilgrim's staff and pointing toward a dragon. The image might refer to the tower where, according to popular belief, the dragon's victims awaited their fate. This illustration is one of two from the same roll that may be attributed to the young Florentine artist Fra Angelico, both being markedly distinct in figural style and technique. (The second, formerly in the Koenigs Collection in Amsterdam, is now on deposit at the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.) Despite their less-finished quality, both works stand out for their spatial clarity, linear fluidity, and confident use of simple uninterrupted pen strokes to articulate volume and structure.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.